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New Strategies and Techniques for Dealing with Fake NewsGiven the shortcomings of existing tools for evaluating information, we’ve compiled a few suggestions for dealing with today’s fake news.1. Develop and employ investigative techniques: Rather than relying on a checklist, it’s important that we develop the capacity to employ more sophisticated techniques and strategies when assessing information. These techniques include:Knowing about and using available web tools – There are multiple tools and sites that are available to help deal with false information, and an important part of tackling the issue of fake news is to be aware of these resources. For instance, it’s helpful to know about reliable fact checking sites such as Snopes, Politifact, and FactCheck.org. These sites assess news stories and claims that are circulating and then rate each one for accuracy.

Another helpful tool is Google’s reverse image search, which allows you to search for a picture to determine where the image originally appeared and whether it has been altered. As well, VerificationHandbook.com is an excellent source of information that details how to verify particular types of media including images and video.

Reading like a fact checker: It’s also important to understand how professional fact checkers read and evaluate online sources, in order to emulate their strategies. A 2017 study observed 45 individuals (10 PhD historians, 10 professional fact checkers, and 25 Stanford undergraduate students) as they evaluated live websites. The researchers found that both the historians and the students were easily influenced by false elements of websites, including logos and domain names (both of which are easily manipulated). Importantly, these individuals employed the practice of reading “vertically,” that is, staying on the same site in order to assess it. On the other hand, the professional fact checkers read “laterally,” meaning that instead of evaluating the site itself, they searched outside sources for corroboration. This is a key technique for evaluating sources, especially given the many strategies and tools available for generating a scaffolding of falsified supports around any given fake site or article.

Understanding and identifying biases: Finally, it’s important to learn how to read critically in order to assess the biases of particular sources. This is sometimes a matter of knowing which resources are available to help determine biases; for instance, this chart does an excellent job of laying out the media landscape according to political leaning and general reliability of reporting.

2. Use rich examples: When it comes to helping others understand the complexities of fake news and how to deal with this important issues, it can be very helpful to use rich, real-life examples of falsified stories or images. Of course, there are many pre-fabricated examples of fake artefacts, and over the years, we’ve seen teachers making great use of “fake sites” designed to help students develop information literacies/skills, including DHMO.org, Save the Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, Feline reactions to bearded men, and BuyDehydratedWater. But while these are still great resources that can be used with some success, given the abundance of fake news and internet scams that inundate our digital society, there are plenty of opportunities to use fresh and authentic examples in class.Fake Hilary Pic

Use techniques in this article to determine the veracity of this image.For instance, take this image of Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail, purportedly standing next to a woman wearing an “I’m with stupid” t-shirt that points to Clinton. The image circulated on Facebook in July of 2015, with the criticism that Clinton was “too into herself to notice a t-shirt.” As an activity, we might try to use the techniques listed above to determine whether the photo is legitimate. In this case, we could use the aforementioned Google reverse image search to find the original photo, which would quickly tell us that earlier versions of the photo included a plain white t-shirt without writing on it. A reverse image search would also lead us to the Snopes page dedicated to the image, which provides additional details about the spread of the hoax. In today’s fake news world, similar examples are readily available for use as authentic case studies.3. Nurture a Critical Disposition: Ernest Hemingway once remarked that “the most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, s*** detector;” in today’s fake news world, the ability to detect lies and nonsense is essential not just for writers but for readers as well. For better or for worse, however, we humans often seem inclined to believe what we see, hear, and read. As such, a third key strategy for dealing with fake news is the development of a critical disposition. Essentially, one of the key challenges of the current age is the need to retrain ourselves to look at the world with an attitude that demands that we question everything, not so that we are paralyzed by uncertainty but so that we are liberated, freed from a world of mistruths and able to assess “reality” in order to create a more accurate picture of the world than the one that is being presented.